Upholding our Principles for Responsible Investment and Operations is fundamental to meeting our human rights commitments. This includes operating with integrity and not participating in corrupt business practices, maintaining sound environmental standards and working diligently to prevent any risk to health and safety wherever we operate around the world. Our approach to managing our human rights commitments is to integrate specific human rights elements into our employee practices and policies, our community and stakeholder engagement practices and policies, and in the way that we manage the security of our employees and our facilities.

2008 Plans

To date, Petro-Canada’s exposure to security situations with a high risk of human rights abuse has been limited. However, our business strategy is shifting towards being the operator at our international facilities. We are implementing more robust social risks assessment processes to better understand the social context in which we are operating and the effect that our presence has on the surrounding communities, in particular, the potential risk to human rights.

In Syria we are undertaking seismic operations and completing the front-end engineering and design for our Ebla Gas Plant. A priority for 2008, as we hire contractors to work on this project, will be to identify the potential human rights risks that arise, for instance, where local and international contractor’s workplace and employee practices are not consistent with our own. In each case, we evaluate our risk and are strengthening our contract terms so our human rights expectations are communicated in a clear and concrete manner.

Once ratified, we will hold a 49% interest in Harouge Oil Operations, a joint venture with the Libyan National Oil Company. Our Exploration and Production Sharing Agreements will see us become an operator as we jointly design and implement the development of more than 20 major fields. Over the past three years, we have taken a pro-active role on the management committee in supporting both the sustainability and safety practices of the operation. Petro-Canada employees are seconded to work in the operation to directly support the safety practices on the site. As operator, we will continue to focus on safety and extending our human rights expectations to the contractors that we engage.

In Trinidad and Tobago, we have had an active seismic and drilling program since 2005. Our key human rights risks are to the safety and potential disruption of the livelihood of the local fisher community. When we started our seismic activity, we implemented a number of safety measures to avoid interaction between our vessels and fishing fleets and also provided Safety at Sea training to the community. The community had concerns that our drilling program would disrupt their fishing activity, a significant part of the local economy. In collaboration with the local community, we worked to mitigate any disruption.

See our case study on Sharing the Ocean

Guidelines for Security and the Protection of Human Rights

Where we require security services to protect our employees and contractors, our intention is to have systems in place to safeguard human rights.

Operating in politically sensitive jurisdictions can create complex security risks. We must respect human rights and the rule of law in the way that we respond to and manage security risks. In 2005 Petro-Canada implemented corporate-wide Guidelines for Security and the Protection of Human Rights based on the Voluntary Principles of Human Rights and Security (U.S./U.K. 2001). The Guidelines are applied across the company for the use of public or private security services, in either existing operations or entry into new countries. The Guidelines are incorporated into the security management and emergency preparedness element of the company’s TLM standards. In 2007, the Guidelines were incorporated into a security management framework in our international operations.

An important part of these Guidelines is the definition of Petro-Canada’s sphere of influence, given the company’s relative size. We define this sphere of influence as where we participate as a major interest holder or a co-venturer in a project, or manage interests as an operator for the benefit of others. We can more directly influence operations and decision making by communicating security and human rights expectations to co-venturers. Where Petro-Canada holds a minority interest, as an investor or participant in a project, our influence is less direct. In either situation, our expectations regarding human rights and security are clearly established.

We also recognize our obligation for safeguarding our employees, in light of potential security risks to their personal safety in some countries. We use independent country risk assessments to evaluate our risks and develop strategies. Employees, both in-country and visitors, can get immediate access to up-to-date information on all aspects of a region, including political and security-related news and advisories, as well as information on cultural sensitivities.

View our Security Guidelines For The Protection of Human Rights
(PDF, 6 pp., 50 KB)